LGBTQ Policy

Unclear: Non-Affirming

The score for church websites that do notclearly communicate non-affirming LGBTQ+ policies.

Unclear websites locate policies in peripheral sections of the website (e.g. sermons) OR are located in a denomination's website and are not directly linked from church website's primary pages.

Non-Affirming policies place restrictions on individuals based on their sexual orientation and/or gender identity (e.g. people who identify as Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex or Queer). A church may welcome LGBTQ+ people, but if it will not ordain, hire or marry LGBTQ+ people, their policy is non-affirming. If a church has non-egalitarian policy, that will be counted as non-affirming since it discriminates based on gender identity.

Women in Leadership Policy

Unclear: Egalitarian

What does this score mean?

Unclear: Egalitarian

The score for churches whose egalitarian policies are not adequately reflected in the current leadership personnel as listed on their websites.

Unclear: Egalitarian churches permit women to serve at all levels of leadership within a local church but LACK clear and adequate representation in leadership ranks. Adequate representation = at least one woman or non-male person holds a pastor or minister title or leadership team is at least 50% non-male. If this information is not provided clearly on the website, it's scored as "unclear." If the pastor title is non-distinguishable from pastor titles that women hold in non-egalitarian churches (e.g. "Children's Pastor") then it's scored as "unclear." A Clear: Affirming policy will suffice in lieu of an Egalitarian policy, but Clear or Unclear depends on representation.

Web Links

Notes

Its actively enforced policy cannot be found on the website's primary pages. Although the only female pastor is the Pastor of Women, whereas men are given titles like Pastor of Vision and Teaching, she has preached several sermons included on the teachings page.